I'll Be Here Beyond the Falling Moon
by sgdfs
Summary: Mikau is released into the wild for the first time and discovers Zora Hall--and Lulu. Can he love Lulu and still stay loyal to his 'father'? Rated PG-13 for suggestive themes. NOW INTO CHAP. 2!
1. Default Chapter

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"I'll Be Here Beyond the Falling Moon"

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by: Glass Angel

CHAPTER I

"Wake up, boy."

Mikau opened his eyes a sliver and sleepily gazed through the glass side of his tank. A withered man with white hair watched him impatiently. Mikau let out a yawn and stood up, stretching his tired limbs and outstretched fins. 

"Yes, Father?" he asked quietly, no expression shown on his sleek face. He spied a sliver of light peeking under the door of the laboratory and guessed it was about dawn; had the stilted building possessed windows, it would have been easier to tell.

"I need to speak with you for a moment," the professor replied, hunched over with age. 

"I'm listening, sir," Mikau said in return.

"Now that you have developed into a full-grown zora, I believe that you can take up some responsibility." Mikau nodded silently in agreement. "I have decided to let you live among other zoras like yourself to see how they interact with one another."

"There are other zoras out there?" Mikau questioned, surprised at the thought. The professor chuckled.

"Did you truly believe that you were the only zora in existence? Perhaps I have sheltered you here for too long. I want you to live amongst them during the day and return here at night to tell me of your observations and to sleep. Do you think that you will be able to take up this responsibility?"

"Of course, sir," Mikau replied, his mind reeling with such new and exotic information. Ever since he had hatched in the very tank he stood in, he had never thought of other creatures just like himself could possibly be real.

"I would like you to go today," the professor added, walking over to the rusted iron ladder adjacent to the large tank. He pulled himself up each discolored rung with great effort until he reached the top of Mikau's tank. He climbed to the top and pulled a large lever. The iron bars that created the ceiling of the tank creaked open slowly. Mikau swam to the surface and poked his head out of the water of the dismal receptacle.

"You may leave the tank now," the old man said, answering Mikau's questioning look. Mikau pulled himself out of the water and stood beside the professor, his teal skin aglow from the trickles of water. The professor pulled out a leather collar and beckoned his specimen to lean forward. Mikau did so, and the professor snapped the collar around his neck. Mikau, knowing that it was best not to ask questions—for the professor disliked it whenever he did so— straightened and leapt down from the tank, landing lightly on the cold floor. The professor did so from the ladder and opened the door of the laboratory. Mikau shielded his eyes slightly from the rays of the morning sun. 

"Go now," the old man said to him. Mikau gazed outside, then to the professor, and left without another word.

* * *

Japas lugged two guitar cases into Zora Hall.

"Here we are, guys," he said, gesturing a hand before him, "our home for the month." Lulu followed him, carrying a small case that held microphone equipment.

"I can't believe we're finally here." Tijo said, dragging a drum set case behind him. 

"Is this our last stop for the tour?" Lulu asked as Evan entered the hall.

"Yes." he replied as other zoras dragged in his keyboard. "Our last stop. Finally. All right, everyone find your rooms." 

A zora approached Lulu timidly.

"Uh, y-your room is over here," he said, gesturing to a door with an outstretched fin.

"Thank you," she said to him, smiling. 

The zora nearly melted where he was standing as Lulu walked into her room.

"She spoke to me," he said dreamily. 

Japas dumped his equipment onto a table in his room and pulled out some sheet music to study as Tijo and Evan entered their rooms. Japas exited his room and walked over to Lulu's.

"Not bad, huh?" he said, poking his head into her room. 

Lulu looked up and nodded. "It's just fine," she replied, looking back down at the decorative seashell table.

"I wonder if we'll have a crowd as big as the last show did," Japas wondered aloud, leaning against the door frame.

"Maybe," Lulu answered, sitting down at the shell-crafted chair. "It _is _ our final stop, after all." 

Japas nodded in agreement. "Well, I'm gonna go and take a nap." He said, stretching. "I'm tired from the trip. It didn't help that it took all night. See ya." Japas left the room.

"That's not a bad idea," Lulu said to herself. She laid down on the long chair and closed her eyes.

* * *

Mikau swam into Zora Hall and gazed at the zoras before him in wonder.

"How. . . .surreal," he murmured to himself. He stepped over to the deep ring of water surrounding the large stage made from a clam shell and watched the zoras prepare for a performance.

A zora then dove gracefully into the water from above him. Greatly surprised, Mikau watched him cut swiftly through the water and perform a perfect dolphin jump, rolling smoothly onto the shore. Another zora followed the first, and he could hear great shouts of excitement from the cliff above Mikau's head.

"Who are you?" 

Mikau looked up at the cliff and found some of the zoras looking at him with interest.

"I'm Mikau," he answered promptly.

"What happened to the fin on your head?" Another asked him. 

Mikau touched his head with one hand and slid it down to where the skin ended at a hanging point. The other zora's head, he noticed, ended with a tail-like fin that hung from his head in a hair-like manner.

"I hatched this way," he said to him.

"Can you dive?" a zora spoke up. 

Mikau eyed him and looked at the cliff. "Of course I can," he said, following the path hewn into the rock up to the top of the cliff. He approached the edge and looked over, becoming slightly doubtful. He hadn't exactly had enough time to practice diving, but it didn't look too hard. Mikau took a step back, then ran and leapt off of the cliff, performing a perfect swan dive into the water. He then swam toward the side quickly and prepared for the dolphin jump. He immediately leapt out of the water in a dolphin-like manner and headed for the ground, but the leap fell short, and he ended up crashing into the side of the ledge. 

Mikau sunk under the water after the impact, his head aching from pain and embarrassment. As he climbed out of the water, he heard a zora standing in front of a nearby door stifle a laugh. 

"Shut up," Mikau glowered at him, then slipped on a puddle and fell back into the water. He heard more laughing as he surfaced.

"What's going on?" 

Mikau turned around and saw a female zora exiting a doorway, clad in a deep purple dress with decorative patterns around the end. She looked over at him quizzically.

"Nothing," he answered, climbing out of the water quickly. He had never seen a female zora in his life. "Just diving."

"Oh," she said. "I'm Lulu. Pleased to meet you."

"I'm Mikau," he stated. "Do you live here?"

"Only for a month," she answered him, "then we'll return home. This is our last place to perform for our tour."

"Tour?" he said. "What for?"

"Why don't we talk in Japas's room," Lulu suggested, "that way we won't have to stand here all day."

"All right." 

Lulu lead Mikau over to a doorway and rapped on the door. The sound of a bass guitar could be heard reverberating through the walls.

"Japas?" Lulu called. "Could we come in?"

"Door's open!" came a voice from inside. 

Lulu opened the door and walked in with Mikau following. The two found Japas standing near his table picking out tunes on his bass. He looked up and spied Mikau.

"Got a boyfriend already?" he questioned humorously to Lulu.

"His name is Mikau, and we've been talking," Lulu answered. 

Japas nodded to Mikau. "I'm Japas," he said. "Sit down somewhere and talk all you want." 

Lulu and Mikau situated themselves on the sand near Japas.

"Anyway," Lulu continued, "Japas and I are on tour with a band called the Indigo-gos."

"Indigo-gos?" Mikau blinked.

"Hey, we didn't pick it," Japas replied. 

"We've been on a world tour and, as I said before, this is our last stop," Lulu said. "Our drummer is Tijo, and Evan is the leader. He also plays the keyboard for us."

"Do all zoras live like that?" Mikau asked.

"Do you?" Japas said. "No, we're just a couple of the rare ones who're famous. We get paid a lot of money to perform our songs for people."

"Father's told me a lot about music and instruments," Mikau said. "He said that I was a natural-born performer with the guitar."

"Guitar?" Japas looked at him. "I've got a guitar with me if you want to try it." He went over to the second guitar case and pulled out a guitar crafted from a fish's skeleton. He returned and handed it to Mikau.

"I've played something that's kind of like this," Mikau said and picked some of the strings. He strummed a chord or two and began to pick again.

"Not bad," Japas said. "Man, if you could learn the songs we do, we could actually have a guitarist."

"That's a good idea," Lulu said thoughtfully. "If you do have a natural talent for the guitar, you should be able to learn the songs very quickly. They're not that difficult, after all."

"We'll have to run the idea by Evan," Japas replied. "I know he'll like it, though."

"That would be pretty cool," Mikau answered, beginning to strum once more.

"Can you sing?" Lulu asked with interest. 

Mikau looked up from his strumming. "I guess," he shrugged. "I sing to myself sometimes when Father isn't around. I've gotten pretty good at it, so yeah."

"Great!" Lulu's eyes brightened. "I'm the singer in the band. It would be great to have a guy singing, too. We could finally get some duets written."

"Love duets?" Japas put in, nudging Lulu. 

Lulu shrugged him off lightly and stood up. "Let's go talk to Evan about it," she said, leading the two out. 

They walked to the next door over and went in, finding Evan hard at work at his keyboard.

"Hey, Evan!" Japas called. "We got someone you might want to meet." Evan turned around and looked at Mikau.

"Who is he?" he said.

"I'm Mikau," Mikau answered. 

Evan walked down the stairs that lead to his keyboard and eyed Mikau.

"What's important about him?" he inquired.

"Well, you know we've been looking for a guitarist for quite a while," Lulu said, "and he knows how to play. He can also sing, which will come in handy whenever a song that you might write would call for a guy to sing instead of me."

"Hmm," Evan scratched his chin. "How long have you been playing?"

"All my life," Mikau replied.

"Which chords can you play?"

"Several."

"Do you play acoustic or electric?"

"Both."

"Are you skilled at picking?"

"I'd like to think so." Evan thought a moment.

"Well," he nodded, "I guess you could play with us for a while, but you're not in the band yet. I'll decide that once I hear you play."

"Okay," Mikau grinned. 

"Thank you, Evan," Lulu smiled. "We'll be going now."

"All right." The trio left the room and returned to Japas's.

"Well, now you gotta learn our songs," Japas said, pulling out a stack of sheet music from the guitar case and handing it to Mikau. "Not exactly rock, but it's okay. I'm trying to get Evan to write more rocky songs, but he won't bend. I'll keep trying if this music is too unbearable for you." 

"Thanks," Mikau said. "Father taught me how to read music."

"Yeah," Japas picked up his bass and stood beside him. "Let's practice the songs with Lulu singing, too."

"Okay," Lulu said, standing. Mikau set out the sheet music on the table, and they began to practice.


	2. 2

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"I'll Be Here Beyond the Falling Moon"

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by: Glass Angel

CHAPTER I

"You got no place to sleep, huh?" Japas asked Mikau as the trio left Japas's room.

"Well, not here," Mikau replied.

"We don't have an extra room," Lulu said, looking over at Japas.

"What," Japas eyed Lulu slyly as they walked down the path, "do you want him to sleep in your room?"

"Of course not," Lulu blushed a deep shade of dark blue against her indigo skin. "How about Tijo's room? He's got that loft up top that he can't reach. We can't let that go to waste."

"Yeah," Japas nodded in agreement. The three walked over to Tijo's room and stepped in. Tijo looked up from his drum set.

"Oh, hi," Tijo said, waving.

"I know this is kind of in your face, but this is Mikau, and he needs a room, so we thought he could stay in the upper part of yours," Japas said, pointing to a space near the upper corner of the room where a floor had been created with a tree growing from it. Tijo shrugged.

"That's okay with me," he said in reply. Mikau looked over to Japas and Lulu.

"I'm gonna hit the sack now," he said. They both nodded.

"Okay," Japas said as he and Lulu left the room. "We'll be seein' ya."

"Goodbye, Mikau," Lulu said and closed the door behind her. Mikau grabbed the edge of the loft and pulled himself up, finding a table and soft grass.

"I guess I'll go ahead and get to sleep, too," Tijo said. Mikau heard him get up from the drum set and settle on the ground. Mikau did the same and stared up a the ceiling. He waited patiently until he could hear Tijo's snores, then leapt lightly to the floor and exited the Zora Hall.

* * *

Mikau opened the door to the laboratory and let himself in. The professor looked up from a test tube.

"What did you learn?" He asked promptly, not one to waste time. Mikau leaned against his tank.

"Well," he said, not really sure where to begin, "I met a lot of the zoras there, and there was this band—the Indigo-gos—who were going to stay for a month."

"Go on," the professor said impatiently.

"I met the singer of the band first," Mikau continued. "Her name was Lulu—"

"'Her'?" the professor looked at Mikau closely. "You met a female zora?"

"Well. . .yeah," Mikau shrugged. "Why?"

"Hmm," the professor scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I want you to get to know her better. Become closer. I want to learn about her."

"Okay," Mikau shrugged again. "I will." The professor looked at him.

"Do I sense that you're using slang more than usual?" he questioned.

"That's how everyone talks over there," Mikau answered. "I just thought I might start talking like them too."

"You may sleep now," the professor replied, climbing onto the ladder and pulling the switch once more. Mikau let himself slip into the water of the tank as the old man closed it and stepped back down the ladder. He drifted to the floor and laid down, thankful for the familiar surroundings. As he laid there, he thought of the past day and all he had learned from the other zoras. Being around them gave him a feeling he wasn't quite used to. Lulu also gave him an unusual feeling, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. All he knew was, it was a good feeling, and he could hardly wait to get back. 

* * *

As the days passed, Mikau learned the music the Indigo-gos' played and was officially accepted into the band. He and Japas became good friends, and the feeling he had for Lulu continued to grow. He felt even more like he belonged with the zoras, and thought less about the laboratory, even though he still returned every night to stay.

After a two weeks had passed, the Indigo-gos were once again in rehearsal.

"Hey, Evan?" Mikau said. "You know the name of the band?"

"Yeah," Evan replied.

"Can we rename the band?" Mikau finished. Evan eyed him.

"What's wrong with the Indigo-gos?" He asked.

"Well, it's kind of. . . ." Mikau searched for the right word.

"Lame?" Japas finished. Evan glared at Japas.

"Do you have a better name in mind?" Evan turned to Mikau.

"Actually, I do," Mikau answered. "What about Riff?"

"Sounds good to me," Japas said. "Y'know, since we've been writing heavier songs? I like it."

"Me too," said Lulu.

"Yeah," Tijo nodded. Evan examined the keys of his keyboard for a moment.

"Well. . . . ." he looked up at his fellow band members. "Fine. Our new name is Riff."

"Yeah!" Japas slapped a high-five with Mikau. "Finally! A cool name!" Evan rolled his eyes.

"Thank you, Evan," Lulu said. Evan shrugged.

"We've been changing a lot," he said in reply. "What's one more? Anyway, it's been a long day. We're done. Everyone get some sleep; we'll be rehearsing again tomorrow." The others gathered their equipment and left.

"Don't forget, Mikau," Japas said as he opened his door, "we've got a jam session tomorrow. Don't be late."

"Don't worry, man," Mikau retorted. "I'll be there." He looked over at the back entrance. "I guess I'd better go out the back way this time," he said, walking over to the exit of the Hall. As he did so, he heard the faint sound of Lulu's singing voice. He blinked and walked outside. Mikau stopped when he found Lulu sitting at the edge of the side, singing a deep ballad he had never heard before:

"My heart is beating for your love

As you have returned to me

Speak to me once more, my dear

That you will love me eternally

Hold me in your arms

Just like you had before

And give me love's eternal kiss

To love me evermore"

Mikau watched in awe as she continued. He took a step forward, and a stone beneath his foot loosened and fell into the water. Lulu stopped and quickly turned around.

"Oh! I didn't see you there," Lulu said, standing. "I'm sorry."

"No, that's okay," Mikau responded. "I shouldn't have snuck up on you." He shifted uncomfortably. "That was a beautiful song," he said. "Did you write it?" Lulu smiled. Mikau thought of how beautiful she looked when she did so.

"Thank you," she nodded. "Yes, I did. I usually sing it when I'm sitting out here. It's where I go before I turn in at night to think. Do you want to sit down?" Mikau sat down at the edge with her beside him.

"Beautiful view," Mikau said, watching the last fragment of the sun slowly descend into the horizon. Lulu nodded her reply. They sat in silence, quietly watching the sun set.

"Do you like it here?" she questioned. Mikau nodded.

"Yeah, I do," he said. "I really like it here. In fact, it's better than home. I really do feel like I belong here with you guys."

"That's good," Lulu said in return. "I like you in our band. The band's really improved with you in it. And," she turned to him and smiled, "I really feel like I can talk to you." Mikau smiled back at her beautiful face. The last few rays of the sun set off her gorgeous violet eyes. She put a hand on his. "Thank you for coming here," she whispered to him softly. "These few weeks have been the best in my life, and it's all because of you." Mikau looked deep into her eyes. The feeling washed over him even more than ever; he felt as if he could do anything.

"Thank you," he whispered back. They held their gaze longer, as if searching the other's soul and finding what they wanted. Mikau then leaned over and kissed her gently on her soft lips, his arms lightly around her waist. She returned the kiss with her arms wrapped around his neck in a sweet embrace. They held eachother even more tightly as they clutched the moment. The kiss ended, and they embraced once more. The two looked into eachother's eyes once again, no longer caring that the night would eventually end. Mikau stroked Lulu's delicate cheek and kissed her another time. 

The kiss lingered until Lulu gently pulled away and stood. Mikau watched her as she gazed at him, then turned and entered the Hall. He sat there for a moment, then went inside himself and into his room, where he climbed to the loft and laid down. The feeling he had continued to wash over him as Mikau thought of the past event. He then realized that feeling he had—it had to be love. True love.

For once, he didn't bother going back to the laboratory.


End file.
